#rewildu

(This BoC was documented in a notebook, and I'm going back to type it now.)

1. Carry all waste | Great start –  not to hard. I started off carrying my waste in a bread bag, but after changing the license plates on the car I switched to a backpack. The end of the day tally included a banana peel, apple core, various other food scraps, MN license plates bent screws, honey jar (had two honeys – combined them), hardware bags (3) from changing plates, receipts, random plastic cup from garage, and maybe a couple more odds and ends. Wow! so much more than I expected! Carrying my daily waste connected us – at least until I threw it into my garbage can… better than nothing, for now.

2. Plan and make dinner | Another simple one. I often rush to make dinner, but since this is a mindfulness activity I added "settle down and take a breath" to the challenge. I like cooking but always rush through it to finish as soon as possible. Relax guy! 

3. 30 minutes of yoga | Three easy ones in a row. Since there were no yoga sessions/classes in town today, I had to do it on my own. I woke up with lower back pain so I welcomed the stretching. I did a 20–minute guided yoga session from youtube. It was hard to get into the 'yoga zone' because the videos went so fast. – so it felt more like stretching after a run… so I did another 10 minutes in the evening. Wellan (daughter) was crying upstairs, so again this was just stretching.

Woven nettle anklets – for the adventure mindset. 

4. One hour fresh air | Easy, but it’s meant to get me outside! Expected adventure rating = 3. Actual adventure rating = 5.5  |  25 minute run to work. After work I had a tight schedule. In order to make to yoga at 5:30 I had to run a couple miles to Devin’s house to pick up a maple log… (to carve into a spoon). I had about five miles to run in just over an hour.  On the way to Devin’s I ran into his wife Joan and she recommended running across the newly frozen lake, which would save at least one mile of running. I welcomed the opportunity to walk with her because I have been looking to pick her brain about her job as a professor. Our short conversation about teaching left me with less of a curiosity about the field. After Devin gave me carving advice, a log, and a handshake, I left on a journey across the the lake. There was just one instance of ice breaking fear on this early december evening (early in the winter for this area of the world). Halfway across the lake I caught myself thinking about documenting today’s challenge. Of course, I want to write clever things and deep takeaways, and this thought was enough to take me out of the moment. This is one reason I rarely participate in social media – it takes you out of the zone. When I was thinking about how to “bottle” this fresh air, the beautiful, pink Menomonie evening was passing me by.     After commuting to work via bike/legs since June, I feel connected to this space. Two miles there and two miles back doesn't get old because when you literally witness the seasons changing the commute changes with it. I smelled the rotting lake, gave mad props to fall for its display of colors, and got a brain freeze on the day it was –11*.       But back to fresh air. How weird is it that I wrote down this challenge, actually counted my minutes of it (it was actually more like 2 hours ha), and now I’m writing about the ‘experience’ as if it were interesting, When in the history of this world has it mattered how much fresh air we got?     It felt great, by the way.

5. Run 6 miles | Ha! Well this should be no problem considering I ran over seven yesterday. It's forcing me to do healthful and wholesome activities – but I have dreadful freelance work to do – so it feels like it's pushing that back. | Two miles to work, two into town to do a lecture for a class, and two miles home. I was carrying a loaf of bread in one hand and a dozen eggs in the other. The eggs made it home OK. Again, I ran into a friend – impossible traveling by car. My legs were really feelin’ the burn at mile 5. Leah took the car and ha been gone for a couple days now. Getting around on foot would feel challenging if I had the option to drive everywhere, but when running is my only option it feels easier. This concept can apply to so many aspects of life... but Ill write about that another time.

6. Pick TWO challenges! – “Read 30 minutes” & ’Wellan time, enjoy it, give Leah time off" | This challenge bowl is too kind. I could have been sleeping outside and not eating today…. I picked up the Monkey Wrench Gang from the library on my way home from work and enjoyed it after getting Wellan back to sleep, The ‘challenge’ here is avoiding my freelance work, thus prolonging the process and letting it hang over my head. It does feel good to relax into a book...

7. Spend no $$$ | Doesn’t seem too hard. Most of the day I thought this was going to be too easy – but then I remembered that my friends were coming in to town and we were going out to eat (a rare and fun occurrence!). I ate dinner at home. I was slightly nervous about looking cheap, but after explaining the BoC my friends did not let me get thirsty! 

8. Clean the whole house | It’s Saturday – this felt totally doable when I at the beginning of the day, but this turned into the hardest challenge yet. The day’s events left little time for cleaning – and fatigue/sickness made it even harder. After cleaning the kitchen and bedroom, I decided to clean the rest tomorrow. The Bowl of Challenges should be done 100% – so I questioned my motives here – why am I doing this? I look forward to this – it’s fun! I’m always nervous that I wont be eating or talking, but it adds an adventurous variety to every day. It also has the potential to alter my challenge perception right? If I view everyday challenges as adventurous variety – I would be better able to cope with and overcome things. So this is what makes this specific challenge compromise –worthy. There are many challenges compounded on top of each other (1-year-old, work, blah blah blah) that make extra challenges overwhelming. In honor of greater goals – I did not clean the whole house on this day... Excuses!

9. Feet in the river for 10 minutes | What has happened to my willpower!?!  One minute I tell you! Just one minute (hopefully more, I didn't have a watch) I held my feet in the Red Cedar river in December. I had no idea how painful it would be. Leaving my warm, comfortable house to stick my feet in a winter river might merit a sliver of accomplishment – but it is clear to me that my willpower muscle needs to hit the weight room. This might not have been safe… but it was worth a shot.

Red Cedar River – just down from the dam – in Menomonie, Wisconsin

10. Call Aunt Ronelle & Mom | This was put off until the evening due to a foul mood – I didn't feel much like talking to anyone. I called Aunt Ronelle – no answer, Mom, no answer. OK great. Mom called – missed it, called back, got Dad – Mom was out. I had a great time talking to Dad. It's no wonder people don't call each other enough. We wait until we are in the right mood, we have free time, and they have free time – that’s serious criteria.

11. No music | This is challenging because music helps me cope with my lonely job, doing the dishes, drown out screaming babies. To my brain it feels like a drug – without it my brain yearns for some sort of stimulation. Music feels good while at work, while doing the dishes, at the occasional family dance party, etc. I did fall asleep at work (not too unusual), and the itch for some sort of enjoyment was… itchy. This challenge comes on a day/week when I have been considering finding new work. The simple desire to listen to music to stimulate my brain is a pretty clear indication that this job is not right. How fascinating that the absence of music indicated a lack of satisfaction with my exposed profession. Maybe I’ll do a sober work week – no music, web surfing, boredom eating, or coffee…

12. Cold Shower | Ooof, let’s get this over with. | I walked to the bathroom, turned on the cold water, and waited – waited. Breathed. Got in – just feet for a while – backed into the water and jumped out! How miserable! I put my head in without including me shoulders– not bad. ok – whole body – terrible! Jump out – in – out – in –out – in – ok that’s plenty.  It felt terrible – the cold shock caused shaking, hyperventilating, and the urge to run away and jump back in bed with Leah. I did feel warm when I got out – and awake. The last time I forced myself into cold water I swam ½ mile across a lake and went into mild hypothermia – so this time I was happy to be able to step out. I’ve always wanted to take only cold showers to cut consumption of energy and water and feel hardcore. I heard about the power of cold showers from Kenton and Rebecca... so it's a life goal, a terrible life goal :). 

13. No Food | Deep breath – ok. That makes preparing for work much easier. I’ve gone a day without food to see what it felt like – it was doable. I’m nervous about it today due to my activity level and recent diet. Like putting my feet in a winter river, this might be dangerous. I'll play it by growl, and if I pass out and wake up in the hospital maybe I’ll eat something. I did have a cup of nettle tea before my commute (biking rather than running to preserve energy) to work, and I am going to allow cups of tea. | 7:30 pm now – and I’m going strong. I drank four cups of nettle tea so far. The hunger didn't really compound – I feel as hungry now as I did at 10:00 am. Food is a mind crutch at work. Like music, food is a total vice for me to exploit when I'm losing my mind at work. I even went grocery shopping today! I caught myself thinking, “Oh this is going to be delicious when I get home. Bah! ! I can’t eat this tonight!” Food feels like a given. The stores and our houses are FULL of it – but it’s not a given. Outside of our carefully crafted lifestyles/system, food is a continuous variable. I cannot wait to eat.

14. 500 push–ups | Whoa. I started doing the math… OK that’s maybe 40/hour, all day. I did 20 right away and decided that if I was going to hit 500 I should switch to modified push-ups. Then I started doing groups of 40 every hour. I fell way behind at work and had 140 in by the end of the work day. It's pitch black dark and I hopped on my bike to go home. I’m cruising downhill out of the driveway – pitch black. In the smallest conceivable amount of time there was a flash of iron gat – and I’m lying on my back (in between the gate and the ground: I crashed into a 5-foot-high gate, did a graceful front flip while flying through the air, and my head followed by my back, elbows, hips and heels hit the ground). Two seconds to assess the pain – respond to friend 200 yards up the hill (I’m OK!) – stand up – second pain assessment – still good – dislodged bike from gate – got a ride home. I did no more push-ups due to bloody, bruised elbows and other mysterious aches.

Poor bent front fork.

15. Silence | Good – I've pulled this the last two days, but put it back because of work. Today is a Saturday – perfect. I’m in the mood for this today | Right off the bat it was hard not to voice frustration with the whiny, teething 1–year–old. It was all bottled up. Leah had this challenge last week – and I think it was harder for me than her. There is a stillness and calmness that you feel when silenced – you don't think about what to say so you listen 100 percent. This got very difficult – I couldn’t communicate with Leah! We both got severely stressed. ALRIGHT. I ended this challenge around 5 pm to talk to Leah. I ended up leaving the house to go to spend time with friends. It was a selfish recoup night of music and fun – and I felt so energized afterwards. Not talking just got me to a low enough point where I had to do something about my issues… 

16. Meditate for 20 minutes | Done. At the end of a severely trying night I laid on the couch with big headphones on and my breath followed the rhythm of music as my form of ‘meditation’.  For any chance of mind stability and emptiness on this night I really needed the music.

17. Journal 30 minutes | Failed – or perhaps just pushed back for now…

18. Teach someone something | Leah and I saw the Hobbit in theaters. Afterwards I “taught” her about Middle Earth, the plot, hobbits, dwarves, etc. However – I would have done this even if I didnt pull this challenge today – so it hardly counts.

19. Call Grandpa | Failed.

20. Hold breath 2 minutes | Done. Kenton was right – if you are not 100% on these challenges you are likely to slip and keep sliding. Leah has stopped doing her challenges, “Life is challenging enough.” She is right. Our daughter is very sick, we are very sick, and it's the day after a hectic Christmas – what a challenging couple of weeks. Our willpower is drained. That’s why adding easy challenges to your bowl might prevent you from overheating and totally giving up...

21. Make a video | Fail.

22. Learn something | Meh, well I did learn something but I didn't go out of my way to do it – so it doesn't count. 

23. Outside 5 minutes – naked | Fail.

24. A challenge was not pulled today. I forgot about the BoC until maybe 4 pm. Again, Kenton was right when he says you have to be 100% with this. The types and difficulty level of your challenges may influence the probability of completing them as well. If a motivation dip happens  it takes serious willpower to climb out of. If I pull sleep outside tomorrow I don't think I’ll go through with it. If I would have pulled this within the first two weeks I would have done it in a heartbeat and it would have been FUN! It’s –5* now, and sleeping outside sounds awful. Now I have to decide whether to abandon the project, just do the easy ones, make up everything I missed, or go all out for the rest of the bowl. Indecision at this point will only postpone any action. Kenton you evil mastermind(fullness)!

25. Pass, whoops

26. Pass

27. Pass (a few days…)

Conclusion | Willpower comes and goes. In the second half of this BoC – it went. The Boc was fun, but it started to make my days too overwhelming. When my vices were removed from the daily routine I saw how much I relied on them to get by. It brings awareness to what you do everyday. It might make you question your routine and challenge you in more ways than your slip of paper says. It gives you a concrete reason to do things you always think about doing but never do. 

Challenges I didn't get to: Put something in someone's mailbox. Fruits and veggies only. Sleep outside. Mail someone something. No phone. Wow, I was pretty close to finishing. That's alright! A dose of failure is healthy right?